(AP) – Ukraine’s fugitive president surfaced on Thursday in Moscow, where he was said to have been seen at an opulent five-star hotel and a Kremlin country retreat once favored by the late Boris Yeltsin.
Viktor Yanukovych reportedly was granted protection in Russia, but he has not received a warm reception. Although Russia still considers him the legitimate president of Ukraine, the Kremlin has treated him cautiously and portrayed him as a coward who betrayed those who stood by him. (more…)
In the annals of historical military research the #1 justification (affirmative/offensive reason) for beginning any war is always the claim of protection needed for a specific citizenry. Watch Putin use the excuse that Russian ethnics in Ukraine need to be protected…..
RUSSIA – President Vladimir Putin ordered an urgent drill to test the combat readiness of the armed forces across western Russia on Wednesday, news agencies reported, flexing Moscow’s military muscle amid tension with the West over Ukraine.
“In accordance with an order from the president of the Russian Federation, forces of the Western Military District were put on alert at 1400 (0500 ET) today,” Interfax quoted Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu as saying. (more…)
Major kudos to John Fund of NRO who actually went to the heart of what took place this past weekend. Inside this article you find the substance of when the actual Ukrainian straw was placed on the camels’ back.
Following on the heels of the “brokered” Friday 2/21 agreement one brave journalist went on *LIVE* ( <– important ) TV and did two distinct things. First she destroyed the claims of the government. But, more importantly, she showed the Ukrainian people how the media was complicit in telling a false story thereby destroying the construct of the ruse. There are major lessons for all of us in the USA within her strategy.
EXCELLENT ARTICLE at NRO – Every revolution has moments where the hinge of history seems to swing wide and everything is different and the old regime is delegitimized.
In Ukraine’s revolution, the moment that’s likely to be immortalized is when protestors charged police barricades in Kiev’s Independence Square (“Maidan”) last Thursday, reportedly capturing a number of police troops, only to have dozens of protesters then gunned down by snipers. Even a face-saving compromise brokered the next day by Western diplomats couldn’t save President Viktor Yanukovych.
His security forces withdrew their support, leaving him unguarded. At 2 a.m. last Saturday, helicopters ferried him and his stooges away from his Michael Jackson–style presidential palace to the Russophone eastern sector of Ukraine. He remains in hiding.
But for many Ukrainians, there was another moment when they realized the ground was shifting beneath them. (more…)
The Wall Street Journal has a cool comparative feature on a photo of Freedom Square in Kiev, Ukraine. The photograph compares 2009 to 2014
One of the neat features is the photo is interactive. CLICK HERE to check it out.
As with all of the political turmoil present within nations, including our own, there are alignments of self-interest which need to be identified. For a close to home reference you might think about the differences between the “establishment class” of Republicans and the “grassroots conservatives” who also situate under the same tent.
We who value “freedom” and cherish “liberty” would no more consider Mitch McConnell a champion of our cause than Barack Obama. Nor would we align with “establishment” principles – yet, from the outside looking in, it would be easy to define us with ideological attachment to Republicans simply by our association.
It would be easy, yet it would be vastly inaccurate. Such is the larger dynamic as we look toward Ukraine and what is taking place.
“Freedom” and “Liberty” are tenuous propositions under the best of circumstances because they ultimately are defined by people. People with a vested interest in controlling the expressions thereof.
With that in mind a thoughtful contributor, with direct attachment to Ukrainian heritage, has provided us with a larger perspective to consider:
People are not hearing anything about the normal ethnic Ukrainians across the country that are being stopped if their cars are too nice by groups of protesters in the roads with baseball bats.
The people get searched, cars searched, and told “it’s the law of the revolution” when asked what give the protesters the right to do take people’s property. We’re not hearing how the protesters and low information supporters have burned out police stations and told the police “we no longer need you”.
They have burned all records in some of the police stations so you can’t tell why people are locked up. The useful idiots are destroying the country’s civilized infrastructure.
It is exactly what occupy wall street wanted/wants to do here. (more…)
#BREAKING Ukraine's Yanukovych blocked from taking plane to Russia: parliament speaker
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 22, 2014
(Via XX Committee) Things are moving very fast in Ukraine today. President Yanukovych, after the bloodbath this week on the streets of Kyiv, has been thrown out of office by the parliament. The country is in turmoil, and in the east, centered on Kharkiv, the Moscow-backed Ukrainian Front, that I informed you of three weeks ago, is arming the population and preparing for civil war.
And now the Russian Foreign Ministry has made its position clear in a new press release on its website – the new government in Kyiv is illegitimate and it’s the West’s fault.
This is a remarkably rough diplomatic message.
It cannot be construed as anything less than a threat to an independent Ukraine.
The full text follows … (more…)
#Yanukovych is not the President of #Ukraine anymore!Glory to Heroes that died for this -live VR |PR News #Euromaidan pic.twitter.com/GfUDD5RlDj
— Ukraine Front Line (@EuromaidanPR) February 22, 2014
WASHINGTON DC – President Viktor Yanukovych left Kiev after inking a deal Friday with opposition leaders to end the bloodshed, while the Obama administration was left explaining its role as the events quickly unfolded. […] (more…)
Families, protestors and the media stream into presidential residence outside Kiev pic.twitter.com/EZ9vXMZgsy
— Emma Wells (@Emmawells1) February 22, 2014
(Via Weaselzippers) We’ve heard a lot about how protesters were upset with President Yanukovych’s choice to align with Russia rather than the EU. But there also was a lot of upset with regard to the perceived corruption in the Yanukovych administration.
His residence was not even made public until today. Now it has been occupied by the protesters who want to preserve it as a “Monument Of Corruption”.
Here are some of the pictures from the residence and grounds:
With security abandoned, people of #Kyiv finally see estate of President #Yanukovych. pic.twitter.com/RARCrPlQOt via @gruppa_voina
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) February 22, 2014
Report #1 – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Friday announced early presidential elections and promised to bring opposition members into the government in a bid to defuse a deep crisis in which scores have been killed and hundreds injured. (link)
Report #2 – Ukraine’s president gave in to pressure from European diplomats and offered concessions Friday to defuse a crisis that has divided his country and left scores dead. Shots rang out near Kiev’s protest camp and protesters fought among themselves about what to do next. (more…)
Yes, it has actually come to pass. Uno Cero firmly in command.
In the era of President Milli Vanilli, a man wildly proclaimed (by leftists) to be the smartest President ever; a man who won a Nobel Peace Prize just for showing up; a man who would heal the planet and stem the rising tides; a man who would improve United States international influence…..
….. now recognized as a man who can’t even get another country to pick up the phone.
Yes, ye sheeple of Democrat association, this is your guy. Mr. Hope and Change himself – President Milli Vanilli in the White House. Hoax n Chains.
WASHINGTON DC – Ukraine Defense Minister Pavel Lebedev has refused to take multiple phone calls made personally by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the Pentagon said Thursday.
“Secretary Hagel has been trying, himself, since early this week,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters. Lebedev refuses “to communicate, to accept a phone call” from Hagel or the Pentagon. (more…)